The unlikely friendship that spurs Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola’s pursuit of glory

After Liverpool won the Champions League final in 2019, Jurgen Klopp was deep inside the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid trying to drink it all in, just as he swigged from a bottle of beer. As he walked into the dressing room a mobile phone was placed in his hand by Liverpool’s head physio Lee Nobes. “I looked at the screen and it said ‘Pep’,” Klopp later disclosed. He thought it was his assistant, Pep Lijnders. “It was only when I started speaking that I realised it was the other Pep,” Klopp said.

That “other Pep” was Pep Guardiola. Nobes had worked at Manchester City until the previous November and while Klopp did not know who had called who, Guardiola wanted to speak to him to offer his congratulations.

Almost five years on, and ahead of possibly their last-ever meeting, as they once again vie for the Premier League title, it remains a remarkable moment. Just imagine, at the height of their rivalry, Arsene Wenger phoning Sir Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho calling Rafael Benitez in such a way? Or, indeed, Mourinho dialling Guardiola when they faced each other in Spain?

“They [Klopp and Guardiola] also have egos but the difference is they respect each other because they know how good the other one is,” a source said. Of course, it maybe helped that Guardiola was making the call on the back of winning a domestic treble, beating Liverpool on the final day by a single point to take the Premier League title. Even so, he and Klopp would joke that they had won the trophy the other wanted the most.

But what is even more remarkable is that it is not unusual. Guardiola and Klopp now talk “once in a while”, according to the source, because “they genuinely like each other”. There is a deep mutual respect between the two greatest managers of their generation – who recognise each other as such – and that is born out of what drives them both: football. Not the business off the pitch, not the catcalling and criticism and petty politics, but the game itself. “Jurgen makes world football a better place,” Guardiola said. “You don’t need to be disrespectful just because you are rivals,” Klopp has said.

Ahead of the summit meeting on Sunday, Klopp added: “I just know the respect is there. We have had talks. Phone calls. Stuff like that in different moments. He went through a difficult period. I went through a difficult period. On a private basis. So we had contact there.

”It’s just respect. While we are in charge of our respective clubs, why shouldn’t we have a friendship or relationship? After that if we meet and look back then there will be a lot of things we could share and that will probably happen. But that will have to be after and I don’t know when that will happen.”

Both realise that they have pushed each other – “they have made the other better,” a source said – and will talk about the tactical challenges that they have set and the evolution of the game.

It is an incredible thought: Guardiola calling Klopp and Klopp calling Guardiola and it is all the more incredible given the undeniable enmity that has developed between the clubs during their years in charge. It has been toxic with, in December 2022, the clubs issuing a joint statement after unedifying scenes in a Carabao Cup fourth-round tie at the Etihad Stadium, while the City team bus was attacked on its way to Anfield for the Champions League quarter-final in 2018.

That match proved critical and, later, revealing. It was in the Amazon “All or Nothing” series released later that year that Guardiola made a rare admission. “The forwards of Liverpool are good. Those three upfront. They scare me, they’re dangerous. I mean it,” he said. Liverpool went on to win 5-1 on aggregate with Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino scoring four of the goals. But it was a shock to hear Guardiola talk like that and that was evident in the faces of his staff.

The managers first came up against each other 11 years ago, in 2013, when Guardiola took over at Bayern Munich and played Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund in the season-opening DFL-Supercup that ended in a 4-2 victory for Dortmund (Ilkay Gundogan, Guardiola’s first signing at City, was among the scorers).

Indeed, while Guardiola went on to win a league and cup double that season, finishing 19 points ahead of Dortmund and beating them in the DFB Pokal final, and while his trophy count in the ensuing decade far outweighs Klopp’s, he does have an inferior record against the German.

They have faced each other 29 times and it currently stands at Klopp with 11 wins, Guardiola with 10. “The way that Klopp plays fits great at stopping the way that Guardiola wants Man City to play,” a source explained. “The problem with facing Klopp’s teams is that so many things are happening.” Klopp’s approach played with Guardiola’s concept of control, for sure.

But arriving in Germany and coming up against Klopp – they were in competition there for two seasons – came as a relief and a pleasant surprise to Guardiola, who admitted he had been worn down, physically and mentally, by the nasty rivalry that Mourinho had tried to fuel between Barcelona and Real Madrid and between the two coaches in Spain.

“In this room [Mourinho] is the f------ boss, the f------ master,” an angry Guardiola declared in a press conference, in 2011, as Mourinho tried to use every trick in his playbook to unsettle him, with the two clubs meeting four times in the space of two weeks as they contested the Champions League, La Liga and the Copa del Rey.

Tellingly, Guardiola added that he intended to concentrate on football. “He can have his personal Champions League outside the field,” he added of Mourinho, as Barcelona went on to win the treble.

“The Mourinho one [rivalry] was nasty,” a source said. “Political. It was like a war: Catalonia/ Spain, Barca/ Madrid, Leo/ Cristiano, Pep/ Mourinho. There were many things there. It is impossible to compare. But Klopp has been his toughest rival.”

After Guardiola’s sabbatical in New York, facing someone like Klopp was refreshing. “With Mourinho it was everything off pitch,” the source said. “He never talked about tactics. With Pep and Klopp normally they talk about football. They also have this polite relationship because they respect themselves, as well as each other, a lot.”

What is also fascinating within that is that each manager has made the other better. Guardiola has never struggled – ever – in his career to beat an opponent as often as he has found it hard to get the better of Klopp. And vice-versa.

What is even more fascinating is how each has met the challenge by adapting their tactics. Guardiola was fearful of Klopp’s front-three but even more fearful of the incredible pressing game – the “best in history” – the Liverpool manager demanded. Even so, Klopp has changed over the years, adding more control to his teams, wanting more possession – and importantly overhauling his midfield completely last summer – while Guardiola has mixed it with a bit more openness and directness, especially since the addition of Erling Haaland.

They have looked at each, tactically, and adapted. Would, for example, Klopp have pushed Trent Alexander-Arnold from full-back to midfield if Guardiola had not already done that with Joao Cancelo?

As challenging and exciting as it has been it has also, naturally, been exhausting. Perhaps most of all for Klopp, who, in any other era, would be leaving Liverpool with far more trophies. And that must hurt.

Between the managers they have the four biggest points totals in Premier League history. Going back to 2018-19 Klopp’s side gained 97 points, the fourth-highest total ever accumulated – and yet it was only good enough for second, behind City with 98 – the third highest in history.

It is not over; not yet. Liverpool have already won the Carabao Cup and are fighting on all fronts – and could feasibly still meet City in the FA Cup – while there is, of course, the outstanding 115 Premier League charges against City dating back to 2009. If found guilty, there is little prospect of the independent commission reawarding any of City’s seven titles, five won by Guardiola, but the verdict would reassess the legacy of both managers.

Klopp has always undoubtedly faced Guardiola with fewer financial resources, whether in Germany or England, which given how good a coach the Spaniard is reflects incredibly on what he has achieved.

But he is the one who has blinked first, although Klopp is, in fairness, 56 and therefore three years older and has been with Liverpool nine months longer. Burnout and fatigue is something Guardiola is extremely sympathetic about. With his current City contract expiring at the end of next season, it would be no surprise at all to see him also step aside for another sabbatical. He has already talked about taking a break after City. Interestingly, both managers have expressed an interest in eventually coaching national teams – Guardiola has a fascination with Brazil.

Whatever happens at Anfield on Sunday, do not expect Klopp or Guardiola to go for each other. If they did it would be completely out of character with their relationship and would betray just how much the pressure has got to them.

“He has told me that when we are not in charge of any club any more we can sit together and have a glass of wine, even though I am not a big wine drinker,” Klopp said. “But we could do that while I’m working and he’s off, I would visit him. We could have that talk, no problem.”

There was always an expectation that Guardiola would go first. Instead, it is Klopp and one of the Premier League’s greatest rivalries, maybe even its greatest, and up there with Ferguson and Wenger, is about to end.